Olympics 2018

The world wowed a few years ago when a very clever startup from Bristol, UK, came up with 3D printed bionic limbs for amputees. Uniquely, the limbs were lightweight, cheap to make and could even be made into Iron Man-style arms to enthuse amputee children. They went on to sign a deal with the huge UK National Health Service to bring new technologies to amputees, announced at a Techcrunch Crunch Disrupt. Today Open Bionics has successfully raised $5.9 million from investors including F1’s Williams Advanced Engineering Group. Their Series A round was led by Foresight Williams Technology EIS Fund joined by Ananda Impact Ventures, and Downing Ventures, who continued to support the company with follow-on funding from their seed round. The funding marks another success for the Bristol Robotics Lab, arguably the largest in the world, which plays host to other robotics startups such as Reach Robotics which closed $7.5M Series A for its augmented reality bots last year. Open Bionics says … [Read more...] about Open Bionics closes $5.9M Series A for its affordable and cool bionic limbs

We will be holding a small event during CES in Las Vegas and we want to see you! We’re looking to meet some cool hardware and crypto startups, so the good folks at Work In Progress have opened up their space to us and 200 of you all to hold a meetup and pitch-off. We’ll have some pizza and beer and we can hit a bar after the event for some one on one time with the TC folks. The event will be held at Work In Progress, 317 South 6th Street on Wednesday, January 9, 2019 between 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM PST. The meetup is sold out but please attend if you’ve picked up a ticket. Thanks! See you in Vegas! … [Read more...] about See you tomorrow in Las Vegas

Last month, we broke the news that Corel was buying Parallels, a pioneer in virtualization, to expand its footprint in the world of business software. Now that deal is official: today Canada-based Corel confirmed that it has acquired the company. Now products like CorelDraw and productivity apps like WordPerfect will sit alongside Parallels Desktop for Mac, Parallels Toolbox for Windows and Mac, Parallels Access, Parallels Mac Management for Microsoft SCCM, and Parallels Remote Application Server (RAS) — key products for businesses that run networks of computers that are not all uniformly running one OS, and across multiple locations. “We’re excited to welcome our new Parallels employees to Corel’s global organization,” said Patrick Nichols, CEO of Corel, in a statement. “From our highly complementary product portfolios to our shared business models and strategies, Corel and Parallels are a great fit. Thanks to the combined power of … [Read more...] about Corel confirms it has acquired virtualization specialist Parallels

ByteDance, the Chinese company behind the immensely popular video app TikTok, is in talks to raise $1.45 billion for a new fund, The Information reported on Friday citing sources. The fresh vehicle will help power artificial intelligence and media content for the $75 billion startup that has leapfrogged Uber’s valuation, the report said. ByteDance declined to comment on the matter. The Chinese startup has set off an aggressive global expansion that sees it merge teen video app Musical.ly into TikTok, which has 100 million and 500 million users, respectively. The upstart has compelled Tencent to up the ante in short videos and Facebook to make a clone. By 2021, ByteDance aims to count at least 50 percent of its total users from overseas, its founder and chief executive officer Zhang Yiming said during a speech in June. In China, a fold of ByteDance’s media products — ranging from short-video platforms, a news portal to a humor app — … [Read more...] about TikTok parent ByteDance said to raise $1.45 billion for AI and content

Chinese consumers were quick to adopt digital payments, and a recent shopping binge showed they are ready for another leap: biometric payments. On November 11, Alibaba wrapped up Singles’ Day – the world’s largest shopping event – and hauled in $30.8 billion in total transactions, a staggering amount bigger than Cyber Monday and Black Friday combined. Instead of frantically inputting payment passwords to grab deals, Chinese users jumped on new technologies to shop in the blink of an eye. This year, 60.3 percent of Singles’ Day customers paid either by scanning their fingerprint or taking a selfie. That’s according to Alipay as it collected the data for the first time. The Alibaba affiliate digital wallet handles online and offline transactions for 870 million users around the world and its close rival WeChat Pay, the payment method that runs on Tencent’s popular chat app, is on a par at over 800 million. Both are racing towards a … [Read more...] about 11/11 shows biometrics are the norm for payments in China

China’s JD.com has made it clear recently that it’s venturing into artificial intelligence and automation. Every few months over the past year, the online retailer – China’s second-largest by transactions after Alibaba – has unveiled new products based on cutting-edge technology: for example drone delivery, self-driving trucks, fully automated warehouses, to name a few. Most of these technologies are still in their testing phase and JD’s ever expanding technology investment is already eating into its profitability. In the second quarter, the retail titan’s technology expenses were up over 70 percent year-over-year for the third consecutive quarter, costing the company 2.8 billion yuan, or $400 million. Net income slipped more than 50 percent to 478 million yuan, versus 977 million yuan last year. By comparison, marketing and fulfilment, which traditionally make up the bulk of JD’s overall operating expenses, grew at less than 30 … [Read more...] about Alibaba rival JD.com plays the long-game on technology investment

Take a subway ride in China and expect to see a lot of commuters’ eyes glued to TikTok videos on their phones. Video clips like TikTok’s are now consuming nearly nine percent of Chinese people’s time online, a 5.2 percent jump from 2017, according to app analytics firm QuestMobile. Apps such as TikTok — which is operated by ByteDance, the world’s highest valued startup at $75 billion — have become popular among previously camera-shy users. Those who lack editing experience can now easily add beautifying filters and music to spice up their work. Elderly couple having a moment on Douyin / Credit: Douyin ID @淘气陈奶奶 It also helps that smartphone data became cheaper and internet penetration kept growing in recent years — China now has 800 million smartphone users, according to government data. In 2013, just under 40 percent of China’s online population streamed videos on their phones, according to … [Read more...] about China’s obsession with short videos has its internet giants worried

Beijing-based ByteDance’s 2017 acquisition of tween and teen-focused social app Musical.ly is paying off. The company this year merged Musical.ly with its own short video app TikTok as a means of entering the U.S. market. Today, the result of that merger is sitting at the top of the U.S. App Store, ahead of Facebook. More importantly, it recently surpassed Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat in monthly installs for the first time in September. According to data from app intelligence firm Sensor Tower, TikTok’s installs were higher than those of Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube in the U.S. last month. It surpassed the four other apps in terms of daily downloads on September 29, with 29.7 percent the downloads from this cohort of apps, the firm says. Since then, it has continued to increase its market share among this group of apps, reaching as high as 42.4 percent of downloads among the apps just days ago, on October 30. In September, TikTok’s installs … [Read more...] about TikTok surpassed Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat & YouTube in downloads last month

Some were surprised to see Snap release a second version of its ‘face-camera’ Spectacles gadget, since the original version failed to convert hype into sales. But those lackluster sales — which dropped as low as 42,000 per quarter — didn’t only fail to dissuade the U.S. social firm from making more specs, because now Tencent, the Chinese internet giant and Snap investor, has launched its own take on the genre. Tencent this week unveiled its answer to the video-recording sunglasses, which, you’ll notice, bear a striking resemblance to Snap’s Spectacles. Called the Weishi smart glasses, Tencent’s wearable camera sports a lens in the front corner that allows users to film from a first-person perspective. Thankfully, the Chinese gaming and social giant has not made the mistake of Snap’s first-generation Spectacles, which highlighted the camera with a conspicuous yellow ring. #Tencent's version of Snap Spectacles will go on sale Nov … [Read more...] about Tencent is launching its own version of Snap Spectacles

China’s search engine giant Baidu is continuing its partnership spree for Apollo, its open development platform for autonomous driving, after it inked a deal with Swedish automaker Volvo to develop level four self-driving passenger cars. “Autonomous driving has been our dream, but it’s coming true,” said Li Zhenyu, vice president and general manager of Baidu’s intelligent driving group, at the company’s annual conference today. Level four means the vehicles can drive on pre-mapped roads with little or no human intervention. The agreement came a day after Baidu and Ford forged an agreement to test self-driving vehicles on Chinese roads for two years. The American car giant’s self-driving system has already been fitted into Apollo, according to the duo’s joint statement. The Baidu-Red Flag autonomous passenger car Baidu and Volvo, which is owned by China’s Geely, said they plan to mass produce the vehicles for the Chinese market, … [Read more...] about Baidu hits the gas on autonomous vehicles with Volvo and Ford deals

French startup Lendix is changing its name to October. The company is using this opportunity to redesign its branding assets and refresh the design of the website for new users. The product remains the same — a lending platform connecting individual and institutional investors with small and medium companies. From what I’ve heard, October had to change its name due to some trademark issue. But the company used this opportunity to move away from its original, pretty boring name. Lendix is a straightforward name that suggests that it’s all about lending money. But there are so many companies with “lend” in their names that it quickly became a disadvantage — Lendopolis, Unilend, Lendosphère, LendingClub… October is easy to understand and to write down in a casual conversation. If the company wants to branch out and start offering other financial products, it won’t be awkward. That’s about it. I just wanted to note the change … [Read more...] about Lendix is now called October

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen passed away this afternoon in Seattle at age 65, owing to complications relating to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Vulcan, the privately held company that Allen founded in 1986, released a statement that says it is “with deep sadness that we announce the death of our founder Paul G. Allen, co-founder of Microsoft and noted technologist, philanthropist, community builder, conservationist, musician and supporter of the arts.” His sister, Jody Allen, a businesswoman and long the CEO of Vulcan, released a separate statement, writing that her brother “was a remarkable individual on every level. While most knew Paul Allen as a technologist and philanthropist, for us he was a much loved brother and uncle, and an exceptional friend. “Paul’s family and friends were blessed to experience his wit, warmth, his generosity and deep concern. For all the demands on his schedule, there was always time for family and friends. At this … [Read more...] about Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has died at age 65

Microsoft Co-Founder Paul Allen passed away this afternoon in Seattle at age 65, owing to complications relating to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Vulcan, the privately held company that Allen founded in 1986, three years after leaving Microsoft, released a statement that says it is “with deep sadness that we announce the death of our founder Paul G. Allen, co-founder of Microsoft and noted technologist, philanthropist, community builder, conservationist, musician and supporter of the arts.” His sister, Jody Allen, a businesswoman and long the CEO of Vulcan, released a separate statement, writing that her brother “was a remarkable individual on every level. While most knew Paul Allen as a technologist and philanthropist, for us he was a much loved brother and uncle, and an exceptional friend. Paul’s family and friends were blessed to experience his wit, warmth, his generosity and deep concern. For all the demands on his schedule, there was always time … [Read more...] about Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen has died at age 65

The high-profile failure of a normally reliable Soyuz rocket during a crewed mission to the International Space Station earlier this week spooked the space community in more ways than one, but NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said he expects to launch a new crew in December via Soyuz anyway. Speaking to reporters at the US embassy in Moscow (as reported by the AFP), Bridenstine observed that “not every mission that fails ends up so successful.” and indeed the malfunctioning rocket very fortunately did not cause any loss of life, as the escape system built into the launch hardware functioned as designed. Astronauts land safely after Soyuz launch fails at 20 miles up Astronaut Nick Hague and cosmonaut Aleksey Ovchinin landed safely some 250 miles away from the launch site after the capsule detached about 90 seconds into launch and deployed its parachute. Although it’s too early for investigators to tell what went wrong, Bridenstine is apparently confident enough in … [Read more...] about NASA plans ‘on schedule’ Soyuz launch despite failure of Russian rocket

Google’s Pixel 2 introduced one of the best smartphone cameras ever made and the Pixel 3 brings even more more bells and whistles sure to please mobile photographers. On paper, the Pixel 3’s camera doesn’t look much different than its recent forebear, but because it’s Google, software is where the device will really shine. We’ll go over everything that’s new. Starting with specs, both the Pixel 3 and the Pixel 3 XL will sport a 12.2MP rear camera with an f/1.8 aperture and an 8MP dual front camera capable of both normal field of view and ultra-wide angle shots. The rear video camera captures 1080p video at 30, 60 or 120 fps, while the front-facing video camera is capable of capturing 1080p video at 30fps. Google Hardware Event 2018 Top Shot With the Pixel 3, Google introduced Top Shot. With Top Shot, the Pixel 3 compares a burst set of images taken in rapid succession and automatically detects the best shot using machine learning. The idea is … [Read more...] about Google ups the Pixel 3’s camera game with Top Shot, group selfies and more

Nintendo is nearing its 130th birthday, and the company is once again in the midst of major changes as it embraces mobile platforms and online services. But Nintendo of America’s president Reggie Fils-Aime says that should come as no surprise: “We reinvent ourselves every 5 or 10 years. We have to. It’s in our DNA.” In an interview at the GeekWire Summit in Seattle, Fils-Aime talked, in his immaculately Nintendo-promotional manner, about the company’s ups and downs over the last decade and what it took to get the Switch out the door. “We focus on giving consumers experiences that they haven’t even thought of,” he explained. Anyone who has followed Nintendo for a few years certainly wouldn’t disagree — remember the vitality sensor? “By going down this path you create doubters. And we’ll be the first to admit that there will always be stumbles along the way.” “The Wii had sold a hundred million units … [Read more...] about Nintendo’s Reggie Fils-Aime on Wii U ‘stumbles’ and balancing nostalgia with reinvention

Remember 3D Touch? Unless you’re a power iOS user you probably don’t. Or, well, you’d rather not. It’s been clear for some time now that the technology Apple lauded at its 2015 unveiling as the “next generation of multi-touch” most certainly wasn’t. For the mainstream iPhone user it’s just that annoying thing that gets in the way of what you’re actually trying to do. What Apple actually made with 3D Touch is the keyboard shortcut of multi-touch. Aka a secret weapon for nerds only. Pro geeks might be endlessly delighted about being able to learn the secrets of its hidden depths, and shave all-important microseconds off of their highly nuanced workflows. But everyone else ignores it. Or at least tries to ignore it — until, in the middle of trying to do something important they accidentally trigger it and get confused and annoyed about what their phone is trying to do to them. Tech veterans might recall that BlackBerry … [Read more...] about The iPhone XR shows Apple admitting 3D Touch is a failure

LittleBits has been keeping busy. The New York based educational hardware startup recently announced a new Avengers-themed kit and its first acquisition. This morning, it’s back with three new kits, just in time for the back to school season. As its name implies, the Base Inventor Kit is a sort of entry level set here, for those looking to sample LittleBits’ modular wares. At $100, it’s one of the cheaper complete kits from the company, containing 10 bits, all told. There are a bunch of pre-designed creations that can be created with the kit, including a voice-controlled robotic hand. This being LittleBits and all, builders are also encouraged to create their own vision using the bits and bobs. Other possibilities include a smart lamp and intruder alarm. The Electronic Music Inventor Kit joins the company’s Korg licensed Synth Kit in the company’s focus on music making. This time out, the base is a keytar, built using eight bits. Kids can also break from … [Read more...] about LittleBits intros three kits to explore music, space and more

Rigetti, a quantum computing startup that is challenging the likes of IBM, Microsoft and Google in this nascent space, today at our TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2018 event announced the launch of its new hybrid quantum computing platform. While Rigetti already offered API access to its quantum computing platform, this new service, dubbed Quantum Cloud Services (QCS), offers a combination of a cloud-based classical computer, its Forest development platform and access to Rigetti’s quantum backends. Thanks to this, developers will be able to write and test their algorithms significantly faster than with the company’s previous approach. As Rigetti founder and CEO Chad Rigetti told me, the reason the hybrid approach is faster is simply because the two systems are closely integrated — and you will likely always need a classical computer in parallel with a quantum computer for solving virtually any problem. And the company expects that this hybrid approach — and likely the … [Read more...] about Rigetti announces its hybrid quantum computing platform — and a $1M prize

Google today announced it is launching its own hardware security keys for two-factor authentication. These so-called Titan Security Keys will go up against similar keys from companies like Yubico, which Google has long championed as the de facto standard for hardware-based two-factor authentication for Gmail and other services. The FIDO-compatible Titan keys will come in two versions. One with Bluetooth support for mobile devices and one that plugs directly into your computer’s USB port. In terms of looks and functionality, those keys look quite a lot like the existing keys from Yubico, though our understanding is that these are Google’s own designs. Unsurprisingly, the folks over at Yubico got wind of today’s announcement ahead of time and have already posted a reaction to today’s news (and the company is exhibiting at Google Cloud Next, too, which may be a bit awkward after today’s announcement). “Yubico strongly believes there are security and … [Read more...] about Google takes on Yubico and builds its own hardware security keys